1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to games. More precisely, the present invention relates to systems and methods for conducting online tournaments for video games.
2. Description of Related Art
The concept of online gaming has evolved from mere concept to reality. Originally, implementations of online games were rudimentary at best. Two players located in remote locations would give each other their respective IP addresses and link up directly to play a game online. As available bandwidth increased and games became better suited for online play, online forums were created to help players find each other. These forums provided players the ability to find opponents that they otherwise would not have been easily able to find, allowing the competitive sphere to broaden substantially. Shortly thereafter, online gamers realized that it would be more enjoyable if some degree of organization were brought to finding and choosing opponents. As a result, online tournaments were born.
Early online tournaments were single elimination tournaments in which predefined pairings of opponents were matched against each other. The winner would advance to a next tournament round and the loser would be removed from the competition. In the single elimination format, winners continued playing against each other until a single player remained unbeaten in the tournament. That remaining player was crowned the tournament champion.
Nevertheless, single elimination tournaments had several shortcomings that hindered the experience of online tournament play. For example, in the single elimination format, match-ups were predetermined, and as winners advanced to the next round, they would be forced to wait for their opponent to finish a corresponding match. Thus, a player might sit idly for a lengthy period of time before playing his next round match. If the player became inpatient, he would often choose to drop out of the tournament rather than wait for an opponent to become available. Moreover, if a player was forced to wait before playing each round in a large tournament, the tournament would take hours and hours to complete with the player spending the majority of that time waiting rather than playing. Either scenario negatively affects user satisfaction levels.
Another shortcoming found in single elimination tournaments was the disparity in the number of matches played by competitors. Because each match eliminated one of the two match participants from the tournament, half of all tournament participants played only a single match. The top participants, in contrast, would advance deep into the brackets playing several matches. The lesser players would have the opportunity to play only a single match in which they could hone their skills. Thus, the better players were able to practice more, resulting in a scenario where the better players improved and the lesser players stagnated.
In order to alleviate some of these shortcomings, online tournaments began using a format known as the “Swiss Round Robin” format (sometimes called the “Swiss Ladder” format, or simply the “Swiss format”). This format, developed initially to help run chess tournament play, attempted to address the problem of disparities among players in terms of the number of matches played. In the Swiss tournament format, all players were seeded and played a first round match. The winner of each first round match was placed in a second round winners bracket and each of the losers was placed in the second round losers bracket. Once all of the matches in the first round had been completed, the winners bracket was re-seeded and the losers bracket was re-seeded, and the second round of play began.
Upon completion of the second round, the winners in each bracket were divided from the losers, resulting in a total of four brackets. The competitors in each bracket were again re-seeded and the third round commenced. The process continued until only a single undefeated player remained in the tournament. Although the Swiss tournament format allowed less skilled players to continue playing matches in spite of several losses, it did not provide a solution to the problem of waiting for all matches of a round to finish prior to commencement of the next tournament round.
A number of other problems have been encountered in conducting online tournaments. For example, current methods of conducting online tournaments are ill-equipped to handle uneven numbers of competitors. This situation arises when competitors drop out of tournaments, causing the brackets to become uneven. Moreover, online tournaments have historically suffered from network address translation (NAT) and quality of service (QoS) issues that prevent certain players from being able to connect effectively to play against each other.
In view of these and other shortcomings in the prior art, what is needed is an online tournament system and method that reduce the waiting time between matches for players and allow players to continue playing after a loss. What is further needed is an online tournament that effectively handles NAT/QoS issues that adversely affect the ability of players to connect with each other for a match.